Do you sit or stand when you have the jab?

[Remoulade]

Not had my first jab yet and going today. Pregnant and incredibly anxious about it. Want to minimise touching anything with any part of my body (yes I know I am over worried, saying it really won't help) and was wondering if you stood up or sat down when you had yours? The thought of sitting on a possibly covid infested chair is making my skin crawl.

Also, if you're meant to sit, can you ask to stand?😐

YABU - I was sitting down
YANBU - I was standing up

I stood for both mine. From driving in to getting back in the car was maybe two minutes. Extremely efficient 👌🏽

When Covid first appeared scientist were still unsure about the all the transmission paths, and there was a great deal of concern that the virus could survive for days on some surfaces.

Back then, I think many people worried about parcels and such like.

Since then, I think a lot of that fear has gone. That doesn't mean to say it still can't be passed this way (especially on footwear), but the level of fear is hugely reduced now. Perhaps not for all people, but for most.

@GreenFingersWouldBeHandy

Yeah people just don't think. I watched my neighbour hand me a parcel he took in for me and then touch his face instantly. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

Your anxiety is way out of control and you need to seek some help before baby arrives.

How are you going to cope/feel about being touched by people in hospital when you give birth?

Well I will be fully vaccinated so as I stated earlier, absolutely fine. I also don't have a job to go back to in the near future. Though to be honest I know full well I will be attending a plethora of meetings all through mat leave.

@Remoulade

Not only would I not freak out, I wouldn’t even have a single thought about it.

I honestly wouldn't even notice if my neighbour did that. Sorry, OP, I think it's quite clear you have severe anxiety issues around germs and nothing anyone can say here is going to reassure you. You need to speak to your GP and midwife team before it escalates even further. Good luck

Newsflash, being fully vaccinated won't stop you catching it.

Surely you'll want to go to playgroups etc to expose your child to some childhood bugs and build up their immune system. You'll also probably crave interaction with other humans!

@Hercisback

He's an elderly man who was unvaccinated at the time. Excuse me for worrying that my need for a box of chocolates or whatever trivial thing it was I had delivered might be the reason my neighbour gets seriously ill or dies.

This is extreme. You hadn't been anywhere to catch covid according to your setup!

How will you cope with a child?

I'm sorry, how have I contradicted that? Is next door considered "being somewhere"? Well I guess I went into their garden a couple of times too so I suppose I've been living it up.

If you haven't been anywhere then why were you so worried about giving him a virus that you hadn't been anywhere to catch?!

@Hercisback

Newsflash, being fully vaccinated won't stop you catching it.

Surely you'll want to go to playgroups etc to expose your child to some childhood bugs and build up their immune system. You'll also probably crave interaction with other humans!

Fucking hell. Do you actually think I'm thick or are you gunning for a slinging match here?

The vaccine should, as long as it is effective, give me round about a 95% better chance of not being hospitalised and a far greater chance of survival.

@Hercisback

If you haven't been anywhere then why were you so worried about giving him a virus that you hadn't been anywhere to catch?!

BECAUSE THE AMAZON MAN WHO IS KNOCKING AND RINGING DOORBELLS FOR A LIVING HANDED HIM MY PARCEL WHICH MY NEIGHBOUR THEN HANDED TO ME AND TOUCHED HIS FACE.

I volunteer at a vaccine centre and every single chair is cleaned between uses.

Isn’t the contagion risk breathing in COVID rather than sitting on it though?

FWIW I’d be less worried about the chair tbh than the risk in driving to get the vaccine. Based on that no one would ever leave the house though.

Really? You wouldn't freak out if your 80+ year old neighbour took in a parcel for you half an hour ago, and then handed it to you and touched around his mouth and nose with that same hand?

No. I really wouldn't freak out about this. In all seriousness it's really important that you get some help about this as your posts are quite worrying.

You're presumably a youngish woman to be pregnant, therefore your chance of survival is pretty high anyway.

I think she's worried that somehow she'd be responsible for her amazon package killing her neighbour. It's pretty extreme stuff. OP I may be a viper but if I had a friend or family member behaving like you I would be seriously concerned about their welfare. What does your DH think of your anxiety issues? Has he expressed concern that you aren't coping with day to day life?

@SuperCaliFragalistic

What will you do if you end up with a child who licks handrails? You will also need to use a variety of public conveniences when you have a child. You do realise that regular, limited, exposure to germs is good for you? My DD caught a stomach bug recently and it was much worse than the usual dicky tummy / upset bowels which I'm putting down to lack of exposure to germs over the last 16 months. Thankfully I'm sure she'll be back to unnecessarily touching everything in sight before long.

Oh. The sickness bugs!

We had a proper spate of them in nursery. We had about 6 in one year from kids who are just germ generators.

My daughter ended up incredibly poorly and hospitalised from a really bad case of norovirus. God. That did nearly kill me. I also ended up hospitalised and before long. Every single family member ended up hospitalised. Worst time. Was horrific.

Sat down for my first. Fainted and ended up lying on the floor. Lay down for my second. On the bed. Not the floor. Preferable to lying on the floor I’d say 😉 if I was you I’d be doing whatever was best for my baby. Imo being seated - just incase.

The question, @RemouladeRemoulade, is not whether you can catch Covid from a chair.
It's whether you want to spend the rest of your life living within such confined parameters, letting your hygiene anxiety dictate everything you do.
You can try and laugh it off and justify it whichever way you chose but the bottom line is that it's not healthy, necessary or rational. And you risk your child picking up on your behaviour and repeating it, dooming them to their own lifetime of restrictions for no reason whatever.

Plenty of us manage to survive life without obsessive hygiene regulations. I rarely get ill - linked in some way, I am sure, to the fact that I am highly disinterested in obsessive cleanliness.

@Remoulade some of the replies you are getting are from people who haven’t had to shield or worry about shielding family members. They haven’t had to stop seeing everyone still and not been in a shop or gone to a public toilet. You are not over anxious, you have anxiety related to the situation and it will change as the situation does.

The chair will be cleaned after each person. Statistically yes someone in there will be brewing covid, but everyone will be wearing a mask to stop it spreading and you can now easily buy proper FP2 or FP3 to wear in higher risk settings.
Congratulations on your pregnancy and for keeping your DH safe.

TBH I'm surprised you are getting the vaccine at all after the situations you describe.

He's an elderly man who was unvaccinated at the time. Excuse me for worrying that my need for a box of chocolates or whatever trivial thing it was I had delivered might be the reason my neighbour gets seriously ill or dies.

...that. wow. That is beyond unhealthy mentally. In every way. The germaphobia, the monitoring of your neighbour, the ascribing responsibility to yourself.

Seriously. Clearly you've been living in a bubble where you've normalised it to yourself, but it's not normal. On top of that, other people get to set their own boundaries. If your neighbour had been worried about catching Covid from a parcel, he wouldn't have taken it in. It's not your job to manage his (nonexistent) risk for him.

Your thinking has become very distorted.

Gosh some people being very unkind.

OP, when I had both of my jabs I sat down but they sterilised EVERYTHING in between each patient. They wouldn't risk the chance of cross contamination where bodily fluids and medicine is involved!

I'm just thinking it might be easier for you to sit down just in case you feel a bit anxious, they will probably advise it because you are pregnant.

I'm sorry you're feeling so stressed out lately, I hope things get better for you and your husband soon. I hope the vaccine eases your concerns slightly

BECAUSE THE AMAZON MAN WHO IS KNOCKING AND RINGING DOORBELLS FOR A LIVING HANDED HIM MY PARCEL WHICH MY NEIGHBOUR THEN HANDED TO ME AND TOUCHED HIS FACE.

Now you're just being rude.

What would you have done if THE AMAZON MAN WHO TOUCHES DOORBELLS FOR A LIVING had actually handed the parcel to you?

You're completely ignoring everyone who is saying your anxiety is not normal.

If it helps OP. there is new research showing that the clinically vulnerable are highly protected by the vaccine. All but a few (mainly blood cancer) were 90% protected against symptomatic disease.

The study is linked in this article.

@Hercisback

Yes covid spreads like wildfire through parcels and doorbells.... Jeeeeez.

Now I do think you're not the brightest. You certainly can't evaluate risk very well.

It does stay on surfaces and it does transmit this way (as well as being airborne). Of course, it still needs to enter the body, but you can still get it from touching surfaces, and then your mouth or eyes or other places.

It's not the number 1 transmission method, but it still remains a viable one.